Just how bad is traffic congestion in Birmingham?

If you commute down a busy corridor like Interstate 65 or U.S. 280 every day, you might think your commute is pretty bad.

But metro Birmingham doesn't really have it that rough, at least according to a new study.

The TomTom Traffic Index says Birmingham has the 49th worst traffic congestion in the U.S. out of 86 large metro areas. It also ranks 59th among the 186 cities in the Americas analyzed by the global provider of mapping and navigation products.

Last year, Birmingham ranked 51st, but there were 61 cities in that report, making it hard to do a year-over-year comparison or to see if the recent changes on U.S. 280 impacted Birmingham's rating.

Here are some highlights of the study:

The most congested day of the year in Birmingham in 2013 was Jan. 17, thanks to a snow incident. That being said, it's probably pretty safe to say that Jan. 28 is likely the favorite for 2014.

During rush hour, Birmingham commuters will endure an average 17 minutes of delays per hour.

The best days to commute in Birmingham are on Friday morning and Monday evening, while the worst are on Tuesday morning and Friday afternoon in Birmingham. Thursday evening, nationally, is the worst time to travel.

In the U.S., Los Angeles took the title of the most congested city in the U.S., while the least congested were Kansas City and Indianapolis.

Globally, drivers spend an average of 8 working days stuck in traffic every year.

The study ranks travel time during peak hours, then compares them to “free flow” traffic time and this study analyzed how backroad travel affect travel patterns, turns out taking that shortcut every day adds 50 % more travel time to your tip.